Comments

My personal recommendation is looking at the INCI list of products you like and understanding what each ingredient is used for and why it is included in the product. You can then read and learn more about these different ingredients through sites like INCI Decoder and UL Prospector.

I think it is important to gain confidence, so don't start out by formulating sulfate-free two-in-one shampoos. Start with simple scrubs, gels, and creams. I believe it is incredibly important to 'play' with the materials to get a sense of how they work, what they can / cannot bring to a product, and if they cause problems with other ingredients. At the same time I think a basic understanding of general chemistry is important: acids, bases, pH, salts, solutions, emulsions, stoichiometry.

@MaisR - The INCI Decoder website looks interesting, but it is not put together by someone who is suitably skeptical or has much experience with the ingredients. The description of materials reads like something a marketing person put together and speaks way too glowingly about raw materials, especially so-called "active" ingredients.

You might find some good marketing stories here, but new formulators could easily be mislead by the information presented.

INCI decoder is a first step. It’s main purpose is to explain the function of the ingredient. It also helps to understand how the ingredient is used by ‘the industry’. For example if you google ceteareth-25 you will find out that it’s high hlb oil in water emulsifier. But if you search it through INCI decoder you will understand that it’s mostly used in hair products, not face creams.

Someone who knows nothing about raw materials can be easily mislead by this description. Instead of calling the ingredient a "goodie" and espousing all the benefits, a formulator or cosmetic scientist should first learn that the ingredient is a "claims only" or "marketing story" ingredient. They should realize that the ingredient will most likely do nothing measurable in the formula. It is not a suitable antioxidant. It will not protect you from UV and it certainly isn't an anti-cancer ingredient. This is just marketing hyperbole.

Cosmetic scientists should know that this is BS and are stories told primarily for marketing products. A website that doesn't make that clear is not helping formulators. Rather, it is misleading and misinforming them. This will lead to dubious formulas which new formulators think are helping people but in the best case scenario they're not and in the worst case scenario they are harmful.

I understand your point @Perry and agree that the classification they provide is often misleading.

The reason why I like this resource is that it helps to understand how the ingredient is used. It all depends on the goal though. If someone is interested in creating a product that feels like "like big brands" (I often see such requests here, "how to make my formula feel like a commercial product") it's good to see what the industry uses.

Beautipedia used to have the same function. You could search INCI name and it would show existing commercial products with that ingredient. It only had a search engine capacities and didn't provide assessment of an ingedient (as goodie or bad etc.) which was more fair I think. Unfortunatelly they removed that function in last August.